1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control method and apparatus for controlling a printer, and a printer using the print control apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when a plurality of copies of the same image data are to be printed by a print output apparatus (printer) using an information processing system (host), the print data is transferred to the printer the same number of times as the designated number of copies. For example, to output three copies of a 3-page document, data from the first to third pages are transferred three times from the host to the printer, as shown in FIG. 19. Transferring the same data three times decreases the printing processing efficiency.
To increase the printing processing efficiency, some printers comprise a spool device for storing print data. In such printer, data from the first to third pages are transferred once from the host, and stored in the internal spool device of the printer. The stored data is used a plurality of number of times (three times in the example of FIG. 19) to output a designated number of copies.
In a printer having a plurality of media discharge ports, it is possible that data from the first to third pages are transferred once from the host, and printed by changing the media discharge ports, by the number of copies, every time the printer receives each page data.
However, the number of copies printable by one print operation in the printer is limited. For example, assume that a plurality of copies are to be printed using the spool device. If the total capacity of print data exceeds the capacity of the spool device, the print data cannot be printed by one print operation. In some cases, the upper limit number of copies is determined by hardware limitations even for print data whose amount is equal to or smaller than the capacity of the spool device. For example, a printer having a plurality of media discharge ports can only print the same number of copies as the number of media discharge ports when the number of copies exceeding the number of media discharge ports is designated.
Some copying machines are free from this limitation by reading an original again when the number of copies exceeding the number of media discharge ports is designated. In a printer, however, no adequate solution is available for a print data size exceeding the capacity of the spool device.
In the prior art, therefore, when a user-requested number of copies exceeds the printer limit, the printer completely stops printing after it prints the limit number of copies, or does not print any data from the beginning.
The present invention has been made to overcome the conventional drawbacks, and has as its object to provide a print control method and apparatus capable of printing a user-requested number of copies even if the user-requested number of copies exceeds the printer limit number of copies, and a computer-readable memory storing a print control program.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a print control method comprising: a designation step of designating the number of copies by a user; a recognition step of recognizing a limit number of copies printable by one print operation; and a print control step of generating a job so as to make the number of copies printed by one job be not more than the limit number of copies recognized in the recognition step.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a print control apparatus comprising: designation means for designating the number of copies by a user; recognition means for recognizing a limit number of copies printable by one print operation; and print control means for dividing print data designated by the designation means into a plurality of jobs each for printing a number of copies not more than the limit number of copies recognized by the recognition means, and controlling printing so as to print the number of copies designated by the designation means by the plurality of jobs.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a print control apparatus comprising: designation means for designating print data and the number of copies of the print data by a user; recognition means for recognizing a limit number of copies printable by one print operation; and print control means for combining a plurality of print data designated by the user by the designation means to generate one pseudo print data, and generating a job for printing the limit number of copies of the pseudo print data.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a computer-readable memory storing a control program for controlling printing by a printer, comprising: a code of the input program of inputting the number of copies designated by a user; a code of the recognition program of recognizing a limit number of copies printable by one print operation; and a code of the print control program of dividing print data into a plurality of jobs each for printing a number of copies not more than the limit number of copies recognized by the recognition program, and controlling printing.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a computer-readable memory storing a control program for controlling printing by a printer, comprising: a code of the input program of inputting print data and the number of copies of the print data designated by a user; a code of the recognition program of recognizing a limit number of copies printable by one print operation; and a code of the print control program of combining a plurality of print data designated by the user by the designation program to generate one pseudo print data, and generating a job for printing the limit number of copies of the pseudo print data.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.